Kuwait Calls on International Community to Ensure Syria’s Security, Stability

Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during an official meeting held on Sunday (KUNA). 
Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during an official meeting held on Sunday (KUNA). 
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Kuwait Calls on International Community to Ensure Syria’s Security, Stability

Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during an official meeting held on Sunday (KUNA). 
Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa during an official meeting held on Sunday (KUNA). 

Kuwait reaffirmed on Sunday its commitment to bolstering international efforts to guarantee Syria’s security and stability, while preserving its sovereignty and territorial integrity. This came during an official round of talks between Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The discussions were also attended by Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and Minister of the Amiri Diwan Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

Kuwait marks the Syrian president’s seventh stop in the Arab world and ninth internationally since taking office in January 2025, following the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.

According to Minister Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, the talks highlighted “the deep-rooted fraternal ties between the two countries and peoples, and ways to support and enhance them in all fields.”

The two sides reviewed the situation in Syria and reaffirmed the importance of bolstering international efforts to ensure the country’s security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. The discussions also covered key regional and international developments, and ways to support unified Arab action.

Additionally, Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Fahd Yousef Saud Al-Sabah, along with Foreign Minister Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya, held extended talks with Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani to explore mechanisms for enhancing cooperation and coordination between Kuwait and Syria.

During his visit, Al-Sharaa also met with several Kuwaiti business leaders to discuss development projects and investment opportunities in Syria. He also held a meeting with members of the Syrian expatriate community in Kuwait.

Damascus is seeking to strengthen ties with Arab and Western leaders in the aftermath of Assad’s fall, hoping that the lifting of economic sanctions and an influx of Gulf aid and investments will help rebuild the war-torn nation.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister announced that the Kingdom, in coordination with Qatar, would provide financial support for Syrian state employees. A joint statement from Saudi Arabia and Qatar noted that this financial assistance would be distributed over three months.

This initiative followed a previous contribution by both countries in April, which helped Syria pay off around $15 million in arrears owed to the World Bank.

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has extended 28 loans to Syria, totaling 333 million Kuwaiti dinars (approximately $1.085 billion). Kuwait also hosts a large Syrian community estimated at around 200,000 people.

 

 

 

 



Israel Strikes across Southern Lebanon despite Truce

A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
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Israel Strikes across Southern Lebanon despite Truce

A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER

Israel pummeled southern Lebanon on Thursday, state media and AFP correspondents said, a day after it targeted a Hezbollah commander in its first strike on Beirut's southern suburbs since a truce sought to end weeks of fighting.

The Israeli army said Thursday that the strike on the southern suburbs killed "the Commander of Hezbollah's 'Radwan Force' Unit", an elite unit within the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

A ceasefire in the war between Hezbollah and Israel began on April 17, but combat has largely not stopped in southern Lebanon.

Wednesday's strike near the capital, however, came as a shock in Lebanon.

AFP photographs taken in the southern suburbs showed the top floors of a residential building totally destroyed, and rescuers searching through the rubble on Thursday morning.

Hezbollah has not retaliated for the attack.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes across a number of southern towns and villages, and the Israeli army issued fresh evacuation warnings to three villages north of the Litani River, and outside the area occupied by Israeli troops following their ground invasion of the border area.

Some of the Israeli strikes, on the southern city of Nabatieh, targeted a shopping center and residential buildings, state media and an AFP correspondent said.

In the nearby village of Toul, two rescuers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were wounded in an Israeli strike as they were dispatched following a previous attack, spokesperson Mahmoud Karaki told AFP.

The team's ambulance was heavily damaged, he added.

The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that an "explosive drone impact" wounded four soldiers -- one severely -- in southern Lebanon the previous day.

Despite the ceasefire, Hezbollah regularly claims attacks against Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon.

Since the war began on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,700 people in Lebanon.

The Israeli military says it has lost 17 soldiers and a contractor in south Lebanon.


Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya

FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
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Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya

FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo

Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' exiled Gaza chief who had been leading indirect talks with Israel over the Palestinian enclave's future, died on Thursday, a day after he was wounded in a strike in Gaza City, medical sources and others from the Hamas movement told Asharq Al-Awsat.

One source at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital said that Azzam Al-Hayya’s injuries were “severe and critical,” while a Hamas source indicated that the Israeli attacks on Wednesday were large-scale and extensive, resulting in the deaths of at least five people across the Gaza Strip, in addition to the son of the senior Hamas leader.

Khalil Al-Hayya had already lost three sons in previous Israeli attempts on his life - two in Gaza in the 2008 and 2014 rounds of fighting, while the third was killed in an Israeli attempt to kill Hamas leadership in Doha last year.

Several of Al-Hayya’s daughters and grandchildren have also been killed in a series of attacks during the war in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Hayya is in Cairo as part of a Hamas delegation and is holding talks with regional mediators and the Board of Peace’s lead envoy, Nickolay Mladenov.

Al-Hayya on Wednesday accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators' efforts to ⁠push ahead with US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, overseen by his Board of Peace.


South Sudan's President Kiir Sacks Army Chief, Finance Minister in Latest Reshuffle

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
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South Sudan's President Kiir Sacks Army Chief, Finance Minister in Latest Reshuffle

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has dismissed the country's military chief and a finance minister who had been in post for less than three months, state media reported late on Wednesday.

The dismissals were the latest of frequent ‌changes in the top ‌ranks of Kiir's government ‌in ⁠recent years that ⁠analysts say signal an effort to consolidate power amid succession uncertainty.

The fired army chief, General Paul Nang, had occupied his position since October and his tenure had come under increasing scrutiny amid worsening insecurity in ⁠the country while the finance minister, ‌Salvatore Garang Mabiordit, ‌had served in the position since Feb 23, reported Reuters.

Kiir reappointed ‌General Santino Deng Wol as the ‌new army chief, state media South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation said. Wol, from South Sudan's Bahr El Gazal region where Kiir hails from, is ‌a close ally of the President and had served in the same ⁠post between ⁠2020 and 2024.

Kuol Daniel Ayulo, a career technocrat who had previously served at the finance ministry and ministry of trade as an undersecretary, has been appointed as the new finance minister, according to the state media. South Sudan has struggled to fully implement key reforms outlined in the 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, including the unification of the armed forces and holding of elections.